Roman buildings

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In Roman times, basilicas were the site of business transactions and legal proceedings, but the building type was adapted in Christian times as the standard form of Western church with an apse and altar at the end of the long nave. The first basilicas were put up in the early 2d century bc in Rome's own Forum, but the earliest well-preserved example of the basilicas (circa 120 bc) is found at Pompeii. (Wheeler, 1964).

The chief temple of a Roman city, the capitolium, was generally located at one end of the forum. The standard Roman temple was a blend of Etruscan and Greek elements; rectangular in plan, it had a gabled roof, a deep porch with freestanding columns, and a frontal staircase giving access to its high plinth, or platform. The traditional Greek orders, or canons (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian respectively), were usually retained, but the Romans also developed a new type of column capital called the composite capital, a mixture of Ionic and Corinthian elements. An excellent example of the canonical temple type is the Maison Carree (circa ad 4) in Nimes, France.

Roman temples were erected not only in the forum, but throughout the city and in the countryside as well; many other types are known. One of the most influential in later times was the type used for the Pantheon (ad 118-28) in Rome, consisting of a standard gable-roofed columnar porch with a domed cylindrical drum behind it replacing the traditional rectangular main room, or cella. Simpler temples based on Greek prototypes, with round cellas and an encircling colonnade, such as that built about 75 bc at Tivoli, near Rome, were also popular. (MacDonald, 1986).

Recreational buildings and shops were dispersed throughout the Roman city. The shops were usually one-room units (tabernae) opening onto the sidewalks; many, including combination mill-bakeries, can still be seen at Pompeii and elsewhere. Sometimes an entire unified complex of shops was constructed, such as the markets built in the reign (ad 98-117) of Trajan on the Quirinal Hill in Rome and still standing, which incorporated scores of tabernae on several levels and a large vaulted two-story hall. « mai multe referate din Istorie